Launch of book on Gérald Tremblay - Chronic underfunding of the cities: How to overcome the constitutional deadlock Français
MONTREAL, April 14, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - After retiring from public life on November 5, 2012, Gérald Tremblay has returned to launch L'Expérience Tremblay, a reference document published by Wilson & Lafleur Editions. That work doesn't cover the events that led him to resign from his office as mayor, in order to get to the heart of the message he wishes to deliver today.
Written by lawyer Claude Laferrière, a solicitor, this work is not a platform for Gérald Tremblay to rejoin the political domain. It is rather more in the way of a documentary highlighting several significant episodes in Tremblay's career in both provincial and municipal politics.
Reference work
L'Expérience Tremblay contains 376 pages, 1 100 footnotes and 4 000 references, including citations of press articles corresponding to the events and facts related by the author. Several journalists and other known figures are quoted. These documentary sources bear witness to an exhaustive and comprehensive work. Claude Laferrière clarifies: "It's really intended to be a history of Quebec and Montréal".
Throughout his career as a commercial lawyer, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Technology (under the late Robert Bourassa and Daniel Johnson), and Mayor of Montreal for 11 years, Gérald Tremblay has always been a man of action. One of his causes-célèbres over the course of his career - the chronic underfunding of municipalities, both within Québec and across Canada – brought him to understand that an adherence to the status quo was triggering financial paralysis of city administrations across the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ), the Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). This financial precarity was preventing cities from achieving their full potential.
Ruptures, revolts and tragedies
"The tensions we are experiencing at the present time are an emergency call to us both individually and collectively, because the status quo is a percursor of ruptures, revolts and tragedies." These words were spoken by Abbé Pierre during a meeting with Gérald Tremblay.
This chronic underfunding has repercussions in several sectors, not least of which are health, immigration, social housing, infrastructures, public transport, environment and sustainable development. An eloquent illustration is the case of the old Champlain bridge, which was in danger of collapse. Our three orders of government were concerned with this case, due to a "constitutional imbroglio" as Claude Laferrière points out, which necessarily triggers corresponding financial implications.
Had their worst fears been realized, Saint Lawrence Seaway traffic would have been paralyzed and supplies of numerous essential commodities would have been compromised in several major cities of Canada and the United States. Other infrastructures are in similar states of disrepair, including the Louis-Hippolyte-La-Fontaine tunnel, the Autoroute Métropolitaine and several other bridges and viaducts, the road network, in addition to underground infrastructure and treatment plants. Repair works to render these infrastructures safe have begun, as the situation had become critical, even dangerous.
A constitutional deadlock
The solution to free the cities and municipalities from the constitutional deadlock, imposed by the British North America Act since 1867, would be to grant them constitutional autonomy. They could then become distinct entities in the same manner as the federal and provincial levels of government. This reform should however be accompanied by a new distribution of jurisdictions and existing tax revenues, corresponding to real needs.
For the time being, these cities and municipalities remain under the purview of the provincial government. It is Gérald Tremblay's long-held view that "If you want to create wealth, you have to endlessly innovate, and optimize the allocation of resources to stimulate change" in an evolving and dynamic world. If we don't follow up on the essence and spirit of the proposed reform, we run the risk of "the sad decline that awaits us", to paraphrase the late Doris Lussier.
The Conference Board of Canada (CBC) has echoed that message: the creation of wealth must pass through the cities. Cities are nothing less than the "economic engine of the nation. Echoing this line of thought, L'Expérience Tremblay promotes the cause of an urban dynamic, including the CMM, the UMQ, the FQM and the FCM. Unfortunately, according to data collected by the FCM, 50 % of each dollar in tax revenues is paid to the federal government. Quebec receives 42 % of amounts collected, while the cities only receive a meager 8 %.
Why have we become beggars?
The mayors of Toronto, Gatineau and Edmonton (John Tory, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin and Don Iveson) expressing their views in La Presse, put the case forcefully: "Without the cities, no economic recovery." It is noteworthy that Don Iveson is also Chair of the FCM'S big Cities Mayor's caucus. Given that, for Gérald Tremblay, the current situation is unequivocal : «after 154 years of a constitutional deadlock, we have been reduced to begging at both the provincial and federal levels".
Based on the record, notwithstanding the sudden departure of the man after more than three decades playing a leading role at centre-stage of politics, "it is beyond discussion that Gérald Tremblay has achieved major accomplishments, together with the other members of his team" as is strongly argued by Claude Laferrière. Among his numerous achievements, the introduction of equity loans, industrial clusters, total quality and long-term collective agreements testify to this.
One could add to this list a historic credit rating for Montreal, awarded by the firms Standard & Poors and Moody's, participative democracy, the Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities, the creation of an ombudsman for Montreal, the growth of Montreal as an international city, and the recognition of "Montreal, UNESCO city of design". Then, of course, there is culture, the repair of infrastructure, property development and social housing, Bixi bikes, the CMM development plan, the Quartier des spectacles, the Quartier de l'innovation, Espace pour la vie, saving the Formula 1 Grand Prix, under the governance of Normand Legault and the investment of governments, and the holding of international swimming (FINA) meets.
In summary, major cities have the potential to become the meeting-place and epicentre of extraordinary wealth. Gérald Tremblay describes the broader context: "That necessarily depends upon an autonomous standing in relation to the federal and provincial governments, who have to cater to their own electorates, making it difficult to prioritize the vital issues central to coherent city planning. If we are to fulfil this vast potential, it will be necessary to break this economic and constitutional deadlock, in order to outperform and ensure the prosperity of our cities, which in turn will enhance the standing of both Quebec and Canada."
SOURCE Wilson & Lafleur Ltée
François G. Cellier, Media consultant, Cell phone : 514 581-8609
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